The Nuggets, now coached by Adrian Dantley, have now lost three-straight to Utah and trail in the series, 3-1.

Asked if George’s absence has affected team, Chauncey Billups said this afternoon: “Absolutely. That’s no slight on A.D. He’s done a great job trying to maintain and handle the guys we have on this team. But yeah, definitely. I think you’d see that from any team that lost their head coach for the second-half of the season.”

Asked what is the difference, the point guard said: “George won over 900 games, man. A.D.’s been coaching 9, 12 games. That’s the difference. (Karl) is a head coach. A great head coach. You’ve got A.D. filling in who probably will be a head coach but hasn’t had the opportunity to do that. We miss his voice, we miss his leadership, we miss the plays he draws up at timeouts, we miss the halftime speeches, we miss everything. But that’s not an excuse at all. I think A.D. has done a wonderful job.”